Main Causes of Crop Diversification

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Crop diversification is a concept which is opposite to crop specializa­tion. The farmers all over the world, especially in the developing countries, try to grow several crops in their holdings in an agricul­tural year.

The level of crop diversification largely depends on the geo-climatic/socioeconomic conditions and technological develop­ment in a region. In general, higher the level of agricultural technol­ogy, lesser the degree of diversification. Moreover, the rich farmers prefer to specialize in agricultural enterprise while the poor and sub­sisted farmers are generally more interested in the diversification of crops.

The main causes for the crop diversification may be as under:

(1) The uncertain weather, especially the erratic rainfall. In the areas where the variability of rainfall is high and adequate sources of irrigation are not available, farmers grow several crops in a season, requiring different quantities of moisture. It is being done mainly to get something from their fields even in the case of extreme weather (drought or deluge) conditions.

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(2) In the tradition bound subsistent farming systems the farmers grow several crops to meet the family requirements. In such areas one may find a high degree of crops diversification.

(3) Diversification has usually been done by the farmers to en­hance nitrogen in the soil and to replenish the soil fertility. It has been established by the agricultural scientists that crop specialization and monoculture for several years lead to soil depletion. In other words crop diversification increases the sustainability of arable land.

(4) The diversification of crops also generates more employment as the farmers and agricultural workers remain busy in the sowing, weeding, harvesting and marketing of different crops throughout the year.

(5) Diversification of crops also enables the farmers to provide a reasonable quantity of the costly inputs to their crops as dif­ferent crops need different quantities of inputs (chemical fer­tilizers, insecticides, pesticides and irrigation). In the case of crop specialization the inputs are required at a specific time and many of the farmers may not be in a position to provide the required inputs at the appropriate time owing to their high cost.

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Looking at the importance of crop diversification many geogra­phers have developed techniques for the measurement of crop diver­sification and crop specialization. In general, it is assumed that if the lumber of crops grown in a component areal unit is large (say about 10), each crop occupying about 10 per cent of the cropped area, it would mean that the crop diversification is of a very high degree. Contrary to this, if a crop occupies 100 per cent of the gross cropped area, the diversification is least and it will be a case of high degree of crop specialization.

For the measurement of crop diversification, Bhatia (1965) developed a formula based on the gross cropped area. The formula has been expressed as:

Index of Crop Diversification =

Percent of sown area under x crops /Number of x crops

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Where x crops are those crops that individually occupy 10 per cent or lore of the gross cropped area in the area under study.

The main advantage of crop diversification is that it provides a relationship between the relative areal strength of the crops grown in region. The larger the number of crops having about 10 per cent of e gross cropped area, the higher is the crop diversification in the re-ion. In fact, it is an indicator of multiplication of agricultural activi­ties which obviously involve intense competition among various ac­tivities for space. The keener the competition, the higher the degree of diversification, and lesser the competition, greater will be the de­gree of specialization, or monoculture.

The degree of crop diversification is closely influenced by the soil characteristics, soil moisture, amount of rainfall received, the availability of irrigation facilities, the accessibility of the arable land and the technology deployed by the cultivators. As stated earlier, the areas of extreme wet or extreme dry climate are least conducive for crop diversification.

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The crop diversification regions of India have been shown in Figure 7.8. It may be seen that Assam, West Bengal, northern Bihar, Orissa, eastern Madhya Pradesh, coastal Andhra Pradesh, southern parts of Tamil Nadu, Malabar and Konkan coasts, Kathiawad and western parts of Rajasthan have the lowest degree of crop diversifi­cation. In fact, these are the areas of monoculture, specializing either in rice or bajra cultivation.

The greater parts of the Sutlej-Ganga plain, hill states of Northeast India, parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, northwestern Tamil Nadu and southern parts of Jammu Division have moderate level of diversification, while the central parts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Rajasthan, eastern Maharashtra and northern Andhra Pradesh have a high degree of crop diversification (Fig. 7.8).

The main advantage of a map showing the level of diversifica­tion lies in the fact that it helps in the future planning and develop­ment of agriculture. The regions which have a high degree of diversi­fication are generally the areas of extreme moisture conditions and/or areas of erratic rainfall. In such areas agriculture is largely subsistent in character. The areas of high diversification of crops deserve spe­cial attention of planners for development of agriculture.

A compre­hensive plan for each of the regions of high diversification may go a long way in enhancing their agricultural productivity and in reducing the regional inequalities in agricultural development. There is in­creasing awareness among the experts of agriculture that crop diver­sification with suitable crop rotations is necessary for the mainte­nance of soil health and for making agriculture more productive and sustainable.